New Delhi: Indian migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic has faced multiple hardships. With offices and factories following the protocol of the lockdown imposed in the country, millions of migrant workers had to deal with job loss, food shortage and uncertainty about their future. Scarcity of food is the biggest problem faced by the poor and homeless people during this pandemic. Nearly 14 per cent of India population is undernourished and India ranked 94 among 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020, many people lose their lives because of hunger.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a food shortage in India, and Cycling for Humanity’s Feeding the Hungry campaign aim to feed as many poor and homeless people. as possible. The team of young enthusiasts with the vision of working towards humanity, distributed food items, groceries, one time meal and even provided shelter to the homeless and migrant labour. They also helped more than 60 drug addicts and successfully shifted to the rehabilitation centres with the help of the local police. The campaign was started a year ago from Manipur but later decided to take it to the other parts of the country as well.
As a part of the campaign, Rohan along with his team embarked a cycle journey starting from Kolkata to Chennai – Bengaluru – Delhi. The campaign, which was flagged off on February 5 from Kolkata and culminated on April 8, traversing around 5000+ kms. The focus of the campaign was to help people in need by providing them with food, groceries, slippers, clothes etc. for their basic survival. Talking about his commitment and passion Philem Rohan Singh, Cyclist and Social Activist and the Founder of ‘Cycling for Humanity’ said, “I have started cycling in 2018 and complete eight expeditions as of now. The aim of each expedition is to spread awareness towards humanity. Due to the pandemic, so many people are facing the food scarcity, especially the homeless. So, we decided to initiate the campaign ‘Cycling for Humanity – Feeding the Hungry’ and travelled across four major metros to feed hungry people.”
“During our expedition, we could not cover Mumbai because of the increasing COVID-19. The country is getting into the lockdown situation but we were still were able to feed 4000+ people in just 60 days and will continue to do so,” he added.
